Long before Covid, I was ringing the bell about the Pussification of America. It takes shape in many forms ranging from the destruction of the appreciation of the need for toughness and healthy forms of masculinity, to trophies for everyone and making sure our kids never feel what it’s like to fail or be disappointed.
We’re a society that believes words can be violent, closes school because of the forecast of a heavy rainstorm the next day, and is now literally afraid of getting sick.
During the last two years, it has been nothing short of stunning, yet not surprising to see how far gone we are. The overwhelming majority of Americans meekly obeyed politicians and scientists who ordered us to do things that made absolutely no sense. The few of us who questioned, and even pointed out observational proof of the folly of the various mandates and policies were branded everything from lunatics to Granny-Killers.
Fast forward to present, as some Americans emerge from the comfort of their scaredy-cat bubbles they are seeing and hearing more and more people admit and acknowledge that, like some of us said at the time, almost everything we did beginning in March, 2020 and beyond, made absolutely no sense, saved zero lives, and ironically, destroyed countless others.
If we lived in an intelligent society, this would lead more and more people to become, as they should, more and more skeptical. Common sense and logical reasoning would return, and a revolt against blind compliance would occur. “Question Authority,” has never meant “ignore what a cop says,” rather, it is a plea to encourage people to find their voice, use it, and ask for explanations when we’re being told to do something senseless.
I admit I am about to provide you a uniquely anecdotal, observational, and totally unscientific example to support my hypothesis; but that’s the difference between me and your almighty “leaders:” I admit that I am using ridiculous methods to reach my conclusion.
My wife and I spent the weekend in Northern Nevada, highlighted by an amazing day at Frey Ranch Distillery in Fallon where we helped create the RAD RADIO Whiskey Barrell, which our buddy C.K. at NorCal Bottle shops will be selling exclusively later this summer. I tell you this not to somehow work a commercial into the soapbox, but rather to give you the background needed to truly appreciate what we observed.
Creating a barrel of whiskey requires hours of tasting whiskey. Thus, when we returned to our Reno area hotel (via limousine), we were both tipsy (Christina) or drunk (yours truly) and exhausted. We made our way to our room, napped, had dinner, and went back to bed around 9PM, desperately hoping for a solid night of sleep with the plan of waking up by 5AM so that we could drive home and I could spend Sunday as I always do; working on the upcoming week’s shows.
So when we both awoke to the most annoying siren-type sound at midnight, we both knew our plans were off the rails. In our exhausted haze, my wife Christina quickly and correctly deduced that we had been rousted from our slumber by a fire alarm at the hotel. After throwing on some sweats, we made our way to the front door, opened it and stepped into the hallway. One second later, we were stoned.
The hallway reeked of marijuana and there was a haze of pot smoke near the ceiling.
Meanwhile, a portly man in a white shirt with “security” written on it and an equally portly woman in a red shirt that indicated she was some sort of hotel-employed safety/medical person were making their way down the hallway with absolutely no sense of urgency. As they did, there were about a dozen other hotel guests in the hallway, all disheveled and in their pajamas, who were told by the pair of hotel workers to “go downstairs immediately!” With that, the guests made an immediate beeline for the elevators (A stupid and nonsensical move since, if you actually believe there’s a fire, you should always take the stairs…but I digress). Meanwhile, Christina and I, having realized there was no emergency of any kind, walked back into our room and closed the door.
My wife stayed at the door watching through the peephole, reporting the stupidity she was seeing of panicked guests and a non-inspired two-person team of hotel workers nonchalantly trying to identify the room that had caused the alarm, still blaring, to be triggered.
Frustrated at the ongoing blaring siren when we needed to get back to sleep, I opened the door again to see the female hotel worker ordering more guests to “get downstairs!” My intention was to plead to their common sense and ask them to turn off the damn alarm since they had clearly realized there was no emergency…and then it hit me…it’s March 2020 in our hotel hallway!
Two people who have no power in life suddenly have all of it! They have shirts with words on them! Just like countless politicians and scientists who “ordered” all of us to wear masks for safety, yet were constantly caught not wearing them themselves (because they knew how small the threat was) we had before us two people who knew there was no fire, and no danger, but they could absolutely tell total strangers to do something that was totally unnecessary and they were going to get as drunk on their power as I was hours earlier on Frey Ranch Bourbon.
The red shirt woman saw me in the doorway, looked at her “partner” and said “do you want them to evacuate as well?” He very authoritatively said “yes, let’s have them head downstairs!” She looked at me and repeated what I had heard clearly and I responded “oh ok,” and shut the door. I then locked and deadbolted it, walked into the room, looked at my wife, and we both had the exact same look on our faces. Bewilderment.
How are people so complicit? How do you leave behind all of your belongings, and trudge to a hotel lobby in your pajamas, merely because a couple of people who clearly are not at all concerned about any sort of threat are telling you to? How do you not assess your surroundings, notice the unmistakable presence of marijuana smoke and smell all around you, and deduce what caused the alarms in the first place and, with that, go back to bed? Or at least to your room, as we did, since sleep was now off the table for a while since the alarm kept blaring and we were now wide awake.
An hour later, as we were trying to wind back down and get back to bed, we wondered how many morons from our floor were still downstairs? Idiotically waiting for someone to tell them what was going on, which of course was never going to happen. The image of pajama-laden humans wandering a hotel with a skeleton staff waiting for the “all clear,” made us smile as we crawled into our hotel room bed together, more thankful than ever that we still aren’t sheep…but aware of the fact that we’re going to need a lot more shepherds.
